Social Welfare Functions and Development: Measurement and Policy Applications

✍ Scribed by Nanak Kakwani, Hyun Hwa Son (auth.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 380
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Nanak Kakwani and Hyun Hwa Son make use of social welfare functions to derive indicators of development relevant to specific social objectives, such as poverty- and inequality-reduction. Arguing that the measurement of development cannot be value-free, the authors assert that if indicators of development are to have policy relevance, they must be assessed on the basis of the social objectives in question.

This study develops indicators that are sensitive to both the level and the distribution of individuals’ capabilities. The idea of the social welfare function, defined in income space, is extended to the concept of the social well-being function, defined in capability space.

Through empirical analysis from selected developing countries, with a particular focus on Brazil, the authors shape techniques appropriate to the analysis of development in different dimensions. The focus of this evidence-based policy analysis is to evaluate alternative policies affecting the capacities of people to enjoy a better life.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxix
Introduction....Pages 1-22
Applied Social Welfare Functions....Pages 23-43
Measuring Social Tension....Pages 45-76
Relative Deprivation and Social Groups....Pages 77-109
Growth and Shared Prosperity....Pages 111-137
Income Inequality and Social Well-Being....Pages 139-190
Measuring Equity in Opportunity Using Social Opportunity Function....Pages 191-228
Global Poverty Counts....Pages 229-251
Measuring Food Insecurity: Global Estimates....Pages 253-294
Social Rate of Return: A New Tool for Evaluating Social Programs....Pages 295-336
Back Matter....Pages 337-355

✦ Subjects

Development Economics; Econometrics; Social Choice/Welfare Economics/Public Choice; Public Policy